Life is a combination of magic and pasta.

Make your own magic

Yesterday before it got too disgusting outside, I did some food prep. I made some picked radish and carrots to use in sandwiches and on rice/poke bowlsThe middle one I gave to Emily since she and her parents liked the last batch I made. It did go faster to use a spiralizer to slice the veggies, though you end up with a center core. So in the big container, I have those center cores pickling on top and in a day or two they should be properly pickled and slightly softened enough to use them to make kimbap.

After the pickling, I made a batch of that fresh corn and blackeyed pea "texas caviar" vegan dip to snack on this week. That stuff is so good. It makes a huge batch so I gave some of that to Emily's parents too. She also lucked out because we went to this fabulous bakery near Princeton on Saturday called Lillipies and the loaf of bread I got was so big that I gave them half. I would have frozen it for later but I already had a half loaf of other bread and some rolls in my small fridge/freezer to use up. But I'll be finishing those soon because you can bet I will get another loaf from there. Along with some of their mini pies because oh mah gawd...amazing.

So while prepping, since my kitchen counter is tiny and the spiralizer wouldn't stay put while turning, a couple of pieces fell on the floor. When I leaned over to clean them up, yeah, it was well past due for a deep floor cleaning in the kitchen. And gee, the stove needs some love too. So yesterday afternoon I donned the rubber gloves, dug out the heavy duty scrub pads and deep cleaned the stove, the counters, the sink and then I first swiffered and then steam cleaned the kitchen floor. Despite the heat and humidity that creeps into the kitchen no matter how much the AC is cranking in the apartment, it was a pleasure to be in there after because it's cleeeeean.

Speaking of clean, ages ago I bought this bag of charcoal litter deodorizer at a little niche pet store. It works SO well to get rid of odors, you only need a little bit, and the kitties don't mind it being scattered amongst the litter. However, not only is it out of stock everywhere online, according to the recent reviews, the product dropped drastically in quality (which is likely why it's not available). However I did read a tidbit in there which made me go DUH. Other people recommend to use charcoal bits that you use in aquariums. So I've added this inexpensive container of it to my autoship for August. In a place as small as mine with a kitty that has IBS issues, anything to keep the place from being stinky is important to have on hand.